Traveling

It’s just after noon on the day after Christmas. The sky’s white, and the wind is cold, and a small dog is sleeping next to me on the sofa, with her nose tucked in under my knee.

I have much to do. The router needs rebooting. There’s work in the second bedroom to be done before January when visitors and snowstorms will both guarantee occupation at some point or another. There’s a kitchen to clean, gifts to put away, and we need to find a place to put the tree until next year.

Instead, I read. Bradbury. Quicker than the Eye. I’m transported from this place to that – a farmhouse in Massachusetts, a library, the old roads below the highway, Dog’s funeral. And my own bookshelf, where books read and unread mingle, and swell in ranks.

We received another bookcase for Christmas – a blessing – and I look forward to tearing all the books off their shelves again and moving the books stacked on the floor next to the shelves and at the foot of the steps to proper places. Usually, my husband rearranges them quite clinically, sorted by type/subject and alphabetized by author, one step short of enforcing the Dewey Decimal System.

If he’s not careful, I’ll beat him to it this year, and rearrange them in a more meaningful manner: Read, Unread, and Not The Type You Read Straight Through. Maybe even make it complicated: He Read, She Read, They Didn’t Read Yet, and Reference.

The house is cool and dark. From the porch it looks deserted, the family inside having gone out to celebrate Boxing day or such. In truth, it is deserted, for I am far away along the Martian canals (having switched books), my feet swishing through their dead skin like dried leaves, wondering about the conflicts of Earth, so far away.

Social circles and other tasks.

So yesterday (meaning Saturday) evening, we went out to dinner at Red Lobster with a friend from high school who I hadn’t seen in four or five years I think. I had an absolutely great time, ate too much, came home and wrote a little, then went to bed.

This morning, we got up relatively early (for us), so that we could go out to lunch with a friend from elementary school who I haven’t seen since June of 2004and her family. Once again I had a ball, and look forward to seeing them again in less than 17 months this time.

Around this, I talked to my folks a couple of times, and was invited out to eat twice by a friend who I see on a regular basis (she’s local). Also did some light shopping and watched the football game and spent five hours filing. (I was a little behind.)

My back is killing me, my sinuses are all screwed up (my fault), and I have eaten waaay too many things over the past two days that contain bell peppers, which apparently now that I’m almost 30, have decided they need to kill me. Despite all that and a tendency to overcaffeinate, I’m really, really happy right now.

I hope you are too.

What weekend?

Replaced the mailbox. Dug out the hydrangea bush. Built up the brick wall around the garden to keep wonder-dog out. Cleaned the kitchen (except the floor) and ran the dishwasher twice. Paid all the bills through mid-October, posted a comic into the archive, and started the processes necessary to replace the thermostat on the heater. Completed three loads of laundry.

Didn’t have a lot of down time. I have a three-day weekend at the other end of this week, though, so maybe I’ll finally get some rest then. I was supposed to go to the Boston-ish area next weekend to see my friend Mandine and her family, but Nighthawk’s not feeling all that great and it’s a long drive both there and back, so I had to cancel.

Anyway, it’s almost Monday and I’m still running laundry. Work will be theoretically quieter this week, so maybe I won’t be quite as exhausted. Here’s hoping.

Another weekend gone

Spent the weekend programming, drawing comics, and taking apart a laptop to see if it could be repaired. Tuesday’s comic is between 1/3 and 1/2 complete, with all the requisite bits accounted for, just not assembled. I got five hours of sleep last night. I have to work tomorrow. The dog’s sleeping with her head stuffed under the blankets and the rest of her out. We’re supposed to get more thunderstorms. I think we’re out of soap. This is getting a bit too random, even for me – going to bed now.

New Routine

My work schedule changed as of yesterday, but thanks to the headache from Hell I didn’t get to try it out until today. It’s 8:45 and I still have 1 hr and 45 minutes until I have to be at work. Wow. I’ve already gotten up, worked out, taken a shower, and gotten dressed for work. Wow again. Jessdog is totally baffled – she thinks I’m staying home, I think. (She’s currently trying to burrow her way into the blankets on the sofa so my typing doesn’t bother her.)

And this extra time is good because the house is a pigsty and I might be able to get stuff done before work. Wow.

I know I’m going to miss the extra day off I once got from working a 4-day shift, but to be honest, things are looking pretty sweet right now.

So, it’s done.

My last class is finished.

My professor assures us that we’ve all passed.

I’d party but I’m too tired to do much more than eat a celebratory bowl of ice cream and sit like a lump on the sofa. Very shortly (once we’ve determined if Nighthawk’s car battery is dead) I’ll be going to bed.

All at once I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders and that the whole world is open to me… and also that I’ve lost a little something, not having class to go to anymore.

They say that these are not the best of times
But they’re the only times I’ve ever known
And I believe there is a time for meditation
In cathedrals of our own

For we are always what our situations hand us
It’s either sadness or euphoria

(billy joel)

I’ve been assured that this will wear off… I’ve also been assured that just because I’m a Master Engineer I won’t necessarily be allowed to drive a train. (Apparently, Conductors do that. I pointed out that I’m mostly water and trace minerals, and they’re both pretty good conductors, but that was not enough.)

And despite fears that I won’t have enough to do, it looks like I’ll be pretty busy. A webcomic to re-buffer, a website to re-revise, my brother-in-law’s birthday / high school graduation party this weekend, Virginia Beach next week, visits from some ideaphiles the week after that, and so on and so forth. And then there’s the floor to finish in the 2nd bedroom and then bathrooms to remodel, etc. etc. it goes on and on. Still, graduation frees up about 10-20 hours a week of my time, so I should be a little more relaxed.

Next Monday my shift changes – I’ll be working 5 days a week for the first time in a few years, 10:30am-7:00pm. Very odd.

To all of you who’ve helped me stay sane these past three years, thank you!

I did it! It’s done.

kirabug tiiired.

My wonderful sister came over today and we cleaned the house – and I mean cleaned the house. My nose still burns a bit from the bleach we used to kill the mildew in the bathrooms. Then we went to the mall, bought some stuff to organize the house, finished getting my contact fitting, came home and pulled weeds for at least two hours in the rain. (Plantnerd, the weed whalloping widget worked wonders!) Then it was off to my favorite cajun place for dinner, and a trip to my folks’ house to return the kid. Now I’m home, a little bit of class work to do if I can stay conscious.

One day left of my vacation. I suspect I shall fill it with nothing. I like that idea.